


Reminiscence

by Fraslis



Category: Artemis Fowl - Eoin Colfer
Genre: Gen, Post-The Last Guardian, The Last Guardian Spoilers, artemis and holly write a book, called Artemis Fowl haha, this wasn't supposed to be sad but uh woops
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-06
Updated: 2018-01-06
Packaged: 2019-03-01 02:25:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13284969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fraslis/pseuds/Fraslis
Summary: After the events of The Last Guardian, Holly and Artemis start to tell each other stories.





	Reminiscence

Holly had started it.

Unintentionally, of course. Artemis Fowl, back from the dead, collapsed atop Foaly, of all people, had asked her to tell him their story, so she did. On the walk back to the manor, curled up on the couch as Artemis drank his hot chocolate and did his best not to fall asleep—which he did, though he held on for an extraordinary length of time—Holly told him their story.

He’d started remembering things almost immediately—little details, thoughts he would poke into Holly’s story, as if to prove it really was him. Holly took it in stride, occasionally bantering with Artemis about the necessity of the _exact_ color of the C-Cube, or the specific temperature of the cryogenic pod. It was her way of opening a line of communication. _I’m here_ , she said, pointing out that, as a fairy, she had a better idea of the physiology of demons. _I know,_ Artemis responded, arguing that, due to the most likely evolutionary line, the entire basis of modern fairy knowledge of demons was questionable at best.

It had taken a long time for Artemis to recover fully. In his mind, he was still recovering, and always would be. Nevertheless, for the first few months, Holly had been forced to beg Commander Kelp for a priority visa to the surface, so she could _legally_ be up top within hours of Artemis catching this or that disease or letting slip that he did actually remember that other thing, but hadn’t wanted to talk about it.

Their communicators got a lot of use.

Things were peaceful, for a time. Haven and Atlantis were in emergency mode, trying to rebuild. Artemis was reacquainting himself with life. He spent long periods of time sitting by his fairy roses, mind wandering.

That was where he was when he got the call from Foaly that Holly was on her way up. An odd message for a number of reasons—Holly was fully capable of sending her own message, for one. Holly was also currently leading several clean up teams in Haven, and therefore hadn’t had any free time for the past month or so, and wasn’t expecting any for at least a few more weeks.

 

When the shuttle arrived, Mulch was the first to hop out, dragging an angry and very pale Holly behind him.

It took only a moment for Artemis to deduce that Holly, pale and shivering and wrapped in the exceedingly soft blanket from Foaly’s lab that he often said he would only pull out for Caballine, was sick. Very sick.

Artemis led them through the house to a small guest room. It was out of the way, but close enough to his own room that he could be there quickly if need be. Holly continued to argue, but by the time they reached the guest room, her voice was weak and her shaking had intensified. The moment Mulch let her go, she swayed, and Artemis, not willing to put up with Holly’s tough act, simply picked her up and set her on the bed.

She argued as she slid under the covers, eyes already drooping, and argued even as Artemis and Mulch turned the light off and slipped out of the room.

Mulch left almost immediately, but not before Juliet spotted them and ran out to greet her old friend. Artemis left the two of them to chat as Mulch returned to the shuttle, and instead broke off quietly to his own room.

Moments after he closed the door, his communicator notified him that he had a call. He answered, and was unsurprised to see Foaly’s face pop up.

“Sorry about the short notice—no pun intended—but she’s working herself too hard down here, and we just don’t have enough surveillance to keep Holly Short in her house resting, like she should be. Let her know she’s not allowed back until she’s fully healed and rested, and that she’d better refill her tank before she comes back.”

“I will. She’s safe here with me.”

Foaly cracked a smile on the screen.

“I know.”

 

Artemis returned to check on Holly nearly an hour later, having done rounds around the manor to inform his parents and Butler that Holly was staying with them, and to let Myles and Beckett know they were not to bother her, under any circumstances.

She was fast asleep, sparks occasionally popping out of her skin, only to dive back in a few inches away. She was still pale and shivering under both Foaly’s blanket and the covers of the bed. Every once in a while, her face would scrunch up in pain, then relax a moment later. Artemis sat on the bed beside her, watching.

He felt as though there was something he should do, something to ease her pain and let her know she was safe and among friends.

An idea occurred to him, then, inspired by his own memories of being lost and confused. He pulled a chair over as he scrolled through the files on his phone.

The file he wanted was simply titled “Artemis Fowl”. It wasn’t just his, really—it was a combined effort, and far from finished, but he opened it anyway, settling into the chair, and began to read.

Holly woke up to Artemis slumped over in the chair, sleepily mumbling out the words with little comprehension of what they meant. She was touched, and fell back asleep smiling.

 

After that, they started doing it spontaneously. Sometimes as a joke, sometimes to comfort each other.

At the ceremony celebrating the reconstruction of Haven, held in Police Plaza, Artemis quietly recited Holly’s faintly scornful words on the LEP insignia carved into the stone as Holly did her best to keep a straight face.

At one of Juliet’s tournament matches, Holly recounted Juliet’s oft-discussed match with a jumbo pixie in Atlantis. Artemis enjoyed this one particularly because he had not been there to see it, incapacitated by his Atlantis Complex.

At Beckett’s and Myles’ high school graduation, between ceremonies and congratulations and dinner plans, they chatted about all the other genii they had met throughout the years—and no doubt about it, Beckett and Myles were both intelligent beyond their years.

At Butler’s funeral, Holly did her best to comfort Artemis by recalling all her encounters with the huge man, from her first capture to saving each other’s lives to geeking out over LEP gear in an opera house.

On the anniversary of Commander Julius Root’s death, Artemis returned the favor, after extracting a promise that they would spend this day together every year.

When Artemis went public with a number of his eco-friendly patents, Holly laughed as he got tipsy on champagne and told exaggerated stories of his total disregard for legality as a child.

When Angeline invited Holly to spend Christmas with the Fowls, she and Artemis spent several days trying to trump each other with embarrassing stories. Holly won by sheer magnitude, and her fanciful recreations, assisted by Myles and Beckett.

Decades later, Holly still told stories. She told them to Foaly and Mulch, who responded in kind. She told them to her trainees, who soaked them up like sponges in water, never satisfied, always wanting to know _more_. She told them to the entire fairy world, fighting for impartial, accurate history texts and publishing her own series of web memoirs.

She told them to the humans, too, whether they realized or not. Artemis had given her the only copy of their collective memories, and she published them on the surface, too, even if it was just as fiction.

She told them in the hopes that maybe, just maybe, people would keep telling them, even after she was gone.


End file.
